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Predator Press

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I suppose I’m inherently obligated to at least one “serious” post where I wax and wane boringly on my overall battle plan.

So here it is.

-For posterity.

Rather than white-knuckling games based on a highly-coveted QB this year, I didn’t even select one until the autodraft forced me to. And even then I removed some -I didn’t want Favre, Kolb, et cetera.

In both leagues, however, I "botched" my desired backup QB and got Ben Roethlisberger. This was not necessarily a bad thing -just wholly unanticipated: while Big Ben wasn't very high in my draft priorities, he wasn't in my "Exclude" list as I thought he would be long gone at that point. So when that late pick rolled around he was still available, pow, the AutoDraft picked him.

Oops.

Matters complicated quickly, and in both leagues I lead in transactions: each currently has fifteen recorded waiver-wire moves by me, I've done some trades as well. (The second highest number of waiver-wire moves for both leagues is half or less ... I’m surprised you guys haven’t accused me of tying up the waiver wires as a strategy!) Worse -with my bye week coverage slots opening up and my Michael Vick-esque QB rotations- I see myself as having another six moves or so before mid-October as I refine the mid-to-late season.

Minimum.

Why? My original plan -to “double-dip” in easy-to-aquire QB/WR/RB pairings and triples- now must accommodate what I promised I wouldn’t do in 2010: nurse another potential 2009 Westbrook, aka Ben Roethlisberger. Cripes, this is even worse than the Westbrook debacle if you think about it: Westbrook was a running back. Roethlisberger is a freakin quarterback. It's like having negative points on your bench. A lot of negative points.

Nonetheless, I’m kinda excited to see how it all pans out because my “disposable QB” tactic seems to work exactly as planned -in fact, all this draft strangeness seems to underline the success. In my other league I had Stafford and Roethlisberger ... and Stafford -in an eerily Westbrook-like move- inconsiderately got his arm ripped off in the very first game. If I had squandered early round picks on Brees or Rodgers and that happened, I would have been completely screwed already. But by virtue of this deliberately-sought flexibility, I can still make a good run with unwanted "QB leftovers.” True a Michael Vick may only be good for a game or so ... but I can get a Hasselbeck, a Bradford, perhaps even a cast-away Favre down the road. Rothlisberger's Week Six "event horizon" is worth another notation here -I may be enjoying a huge shift in gears once that suspension is complete, no matter who I have assembled in the meantime.

And statistics be damned, there’s just a handful of guys I’ve wanted for no good reason whatsoever. Like 99% of the time I see Malcom Floyd play I think he is incredibly promising; this year I got him, but Legedu Naanee is challenging Floyd for the role of the Chargers’ favorite recieving target. I acquired Naanee -who was soup dujour at the time- and waivered Floyd ... but I knew I could get Floyd back because he was less-than-mediocre last week, and everyone is still salivating over their superstar draft goodies. Three maneuvers that seemed circular on the face actually gave me a solid backup defense and almost the entire pass-happy SD receiving corps; a few weeks should be enough time to shake out who Phillip Rivers deigns his new wide-receiving pet to be, and I’ll have another roster option -handy when you’re going week-to-week with quarterbacks in the short term.

(Admittedly, Vincent Jackson returning to the Chargers’ lineup would really screw me here -in fact, the Chargers‘ seemingly-rattled debut got me a bit worried. But luckily they seem to be "staying the course," no matter how stupid and insane that course seems to be.)

Lastly, I succeeded at something else a bit more on the subtle side -I even mentioned it earlier in this post. Predator Press will have a significant percentage of bye weeks out of the way by Week Five, with particular regard to kickers and defenses. Yes I need a backup TE for Vernon Davis, but that isn’t until Week Nine … and at that point, a lot of you other managers will have slimmed down rosters and dropped a few good ones (and heck ... at that point a few Free Agents my be developing).

I’m not sayin I got it all figured out -in fact on the contrary there’s a handful of you guys I’m not likely to beat under any circumstances as things stand. But win or lose, I’m looking forward to watching some of my fave players and actually rooting for them this year.

-And through due diligence, build this season inch by inch by inch by inch ...